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146-429: Overwatch (abbreviated as OW ) is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment . Overwatch was released in 2016 with a successor, Overwatch 2 , released in 2022. Both games feature hero-based combat between two teams of players vying over various objectives, along with other traditional gameplay modes. Released in 2016,

292-508: A Scrap Gun that fires shrapnel in a mid-range automatic firing mode, or a short-range shotgun -like single shot. He also carries a NOS canister filled with "Hogdrogen" to self-heal ( Take a Breather ), and employs a Chain Hook to pull distant opponents towards him. His ultimate ability, Whole Hog , allows him to put a top loader into his scrap gun, firing it in full auto mode with increased knockback, wider spread, and no need to reload. Within

438-444: A Violent Leap towards an enemy and slash them with a blade from his other arm. His Spike Guard grants him temporary damage reduction while launching homing spikes at enemies; this ability also reloads ammunition for Bonespur. He can further create a Jagged Wall in front of him that knocks back foes near it and continues to hurt them if they get close, while also providing temporary cover for Hazard and his teammates. Hazard possesses

584-456: A developmental league called Overwatch Contenders (OWC). The OWL also implemented permanent teams organized in league placements rather than the use of promotion and relegation . The OWL secured billionaire sports team owners to become OWL team owners and established 12 franchises around the world by September 2017, with plans to expand further in later seasons, which would be 20 at its peak. Contracted players on these franchises were guaranteed

730-627: A "gameplay first" philosophy. As part of the original game's announcement, Blizzard released an animated "cinematic trailer" for Overwatch on November 7, 2014. They would repeat this to announce Overwatch 2 , releasing the Zero Hour cinematic trailer in 2019. Blizzard also released animated short films to help flesh out "the real meat" of Overwatch 's lore. These shorts employed 3D computer-generated animation , and received praise from video game journalists, with some likening their quality to those of works from Disney and Pixar. that Recall ,

876-434: A "metascore" of 90/100 or higher on the aggregator. Overwatch 's Nintendo Switch version, however, received "mixed or average reviews" with a 73/100 metascore on the aggregator. Since its release, Overwatch has been listed by various outlets as one of the best video games of all-time , particularly within its hero shooter genre and among 21st-century contemporaries. Voted on by readers, Overwatch also ranked 29th on

1022-428: A 16-issue comic series , beginning with "Trainhopper". Some issues, such as "Uprising", served as tie-ins to in-game events. Motion comic versions of the series were also released, produced by Madefire Studios. These motion comics included sound effects and official music featured in-game. Originally a digital comic series, Blizzard partnered with Dark Horse Comics to publish a hardcover anthology in 2017, which collected

1168-401: A 2018 Game Informer poll regarding the best video games of all-time. Critics praised Overwatch for its friendly and inclusive multiplayer atmosphere, able to appeal to new and casual players, as well as more competitive and expert players. The game's colorful and vibrant world and characters, in addition to the playful and team-based nature of its gameplay were cited as driving forces behind

1314-408: A November 2023 patch to Overwatch 2 , Roadhog's kit was modified slightly to address some of the incohesiveness of the original kit. The Scrap Gun was made into a single firing mode that has both a short-range shotgun burst in addition to mid-range projectiles. Take a Breather was changed to be a resource-based healing mode, allowing the player to use as much stored Hogdrogen to heal Roadhog, along with

1460-523: A bear and for which her ultimate ability would have the bear rear up and wield his own set of AK-47 rifles. Initially, Reinhardt was an Omnic, but later was settled to be a human character, with the Omnic nature later revisited when the development team crafted Orisa. Characters introduced since the game's release are generally teased a few weeks in advance or given a cold surprise announcement. The only exception to this had been Sombra, who had been teased by

1606-405: A certain amount of heroes from each role. Players are able to switch between heroes mid-match after they are killed or if they return to their team's base. Each hero character has fundamentally different attributes such as health and movement speed, at least one basic attack, and at least one unique skill, collectively referred to as a skill kit. These skills can be used repeatedly after waiting out

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1752-407: A considerable esport scene prop up around the franchise shortly after its first game's release. According to Kaplan, although Blizzard had success with committing to esports while developing Starcraft II , they found "it's dangerous to be overly committed to esport too early in the lifespan of the game." To avoid sacrificing approachability as they did with Starcraft II , Blizzard opted to gauge how

1898-471: A cylindrical force field around him and any nearby enemies that blocks external damage or healing, forcing those trapped with Mauga to fight him. A giant of a man, Mauga befriended Baptiste in his early days in the Talon organization. Baptiste, in turn, became one of the few people to be able to try to calm Mauga's wild tendencies. While Mauga thrived within Talon, Baptiste soon grew distant from it and left. In

2044-756: A few years, the Omnic Crisis was declared over and Overwatch transitioned toward being a peacekeeping organization. After the end of the crisis, an ensuing golden age of heroism and global peace was dubbed the "Overwatch Generation". Despite this, separate human–omnic conflicts sprung up in Korea and Australia. Meanwhile, the Indian-based Vishkar Corporation developed a technology that allowed its users, or "architechs", to create physical objects with light. Vishkar took this technology to Rio de Janeiro and while initially well-intentioned,

2190-485: A franchise can even be created, which ultimately leads to the creation of brand worlds. Since the creation of Disneyland in 1955, bringing fictional media franchises to life through the theme parks slowly became increasingly popular as the way to perfectly blend tourism and real-life involvement with media itself. Similar to transmedia, the concept of bringing fictional media into a non-fictional space where fans can immerse themselves in real-life versions of elements from

2336-516: A global criminal network seeking wealth and power. In early 2016, Blizzard released media kits with granular character detail for fan artists and cosplayers. Preceding the game's launch, PornHub reported a surge in searches for pornography including Overwatch characters . An intellectual property security firm issued multiple takedown requests to sites featuring such videos and other erotica created in Source Filmmaker . Overwatch

2482-628: A group stage and double-elimination knockout stage twice per split. Asia, meanwhile, will be divided into Korea, Japan and Pacific subregions, with the best teams from these subregions qualifying for the OWCS Asia Championship for each split. The top teams from these regions will qualify for two international events, the OWCS Major in the spring for split 1 and the OWCS Season Finals in the fall for split 2. Overwatch

2628-667: A heavy melee attack. Her Ultimate ability is Rampage , which wounds and debuffs all enemy players it reaches. Junker Queen is voiced by Leah de Niese, except for her lines heard on the Junkertown map, where her voice is provided by Siho Ellsmore. Mauga, full name Maugaloa Malosi, is a Samoan mercenary and a close companion of Baptiste, introduced in Baptiste's origin story "What You Left Behind". His main weapons are two chain guns which can be fired individually or simultaneously; one, nicknamed Gunny, can ignite opponents, while

2774-718: A high number of hit points and are often at the front-line of a team. In the original Overwatch, tanks varied between having high defensive capability (like Reinhardt) at the cost of lower mobility and a low amount of offensive capability, while some characters like D.Va and Wrecking Ball had little defensive capability, but in turn had a lot of mobility and offensive capabilities. In Overwatch 2, all tank characters were given upgrades to compensate for going from two teams of six players to two teams of five players, having been subtracted one tank per team. These upgrades gave all tanks more offensive or defensive capabilities respectively to above. D.Va, real name Hana Song ( Korean :  송하나 ),

2920-428: A lifetime total of over 60 million players in 2021. In 2022, Bloomberg published a report stating that the game eventually sold over 50 million copies. Fans of the franchise produced a large amount of content including art, cosplay, fan fiction, anime-influenced music videos, Internet memes, and pornography featuring Overwatch characters and elements. Overwatch 's announcement trailer, released back in 2014,

3066-555: A loose novelization of Orisa 's origin story, follows Efi Ofadele, an 11-year old inventor. Ofadele creates Orisa in order to help protect the fictional country of Numbani. A second Overwatch young-adult novel, this time authored by Lyndsay Ely, was released on June 1, 2021. The novel, titled Deadlock Rebels , centered on Cassidy and Ashe during their teenage years. The popularity of Overwatch led various companies to launch merchandise lines featuring its characters. Funko produced several figurines as part of their "Pop!" line. Tracer

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3212-474: A match who compete in one of several objective-based game types: Control, assault, payload, and hybrid. Overwatch 2 retains most of its predecessor's gameplay and content with some changes. People play on two teams of five rather than six players and the game type "assault" was removed after much criticism from the player base. Heroes were given new designs, with some of them receiving entirely new abilities. A match starts with each player selecting from one of

3358-696: A minimum salary, benefits, and revenue sharing. Preseason games for the inaugural OWL season took place in December 2017. The first OWL regular season game was played between the Los Angeles Valiant and San Francisco Shock to a sold out crowd at Blizzard Arena in January 2018. To support viewership of its professional competitions, Blizzard released a companion Overwatch application in November 2018, which allowed viewers to watch matches through

3504-424: A modeling agency, several television shows ( Playboy's Penthouse , in 1959), and even its own television channel . Twenty-five years later, Playboy released private clubs and restaurants, movie theaters, a radio show , direct to video films, music and book publishing (including original works in addition to its anthologies of cartoons, photographs, recipes, advice, articles or fiction that had originally appeared in

3650-405: A months-long alternate reality game (ARG) prior to her formal announcement. Blizzard found players reacted negatively to this deployment, and have opted to avoid this type of prolonged teasing for future characters. Blizzard will still seed upcoming hero characters into the game's announcement media but without making comments towards that, anticipating players would find these before the character

3796-515: A narrative of a near-future Earth setting following a global-scale catastrophic event - the Omnic Crisis in which robots, known as Omnics, rose up in rebellion against humanity until stopped by a peacekeeping group known as Overwatch. With selection of this global theme, the developers wanted to create a cast of playable characters to portray diverse representations of genders , ages, ethnicities, and nationalities. The heroes include human, transhuman , and non-human characters such as cyborgs, robots, and

3942-524: A number of supporting characters as part of the game's narrative, which is told through animated media and digital comics outside of the game. Its sequel, Overwatch 2 , was released in October 2022 and replaced Overwatch . The sequel builds upon the same hero roster and added more characters, currently consisting of 41 heroes. However, as Overwatch 2 had been developed to be a faster game with five-versus-five teams rather than six-versus-six, several of

4088-523: A passive Vault ability that lets him climb over small walls and obstacles, including his Jagged Wall. His ultimate is Downpour , launching spikes from his back that fall onto enemies, damaging and immobilizing them for a brief period. After leaving his broken home, he enlisted in the armed forces to earn money for a university education, but was caught in the crashing of a downed Overwatch jet, costing him both legs and an arm. Though fitted with standard prosthetics and paid for his service, Hazard sought out

4234-629: A result. An argument between the two at Overwatch's headquarters in Switzerland ends in an explosion, after which both are presumed dead. After these events, the UN signed the Petras Act, outlawing any further activity by Overwatch. As any other action would be deemed illegal, Overwatch disbanded. Both Morrison and Reyes end up surviving, however. Morrison begins a vigilante crusade under the name Soldier: 76 against Overwatch's former enemies. Reyes

4380-418: A rocket booster to Charge into the enemy lines, crushing them against walls. His ultimate ability, Earthshatter , makes him slam his hammer against the ground, sending out a shockwave that incapacitates enemies in front of him. Reinhardt Wilhelm is a decorated Bundeswehr veteran from Stuttgart who lives under a knightly code of chivalry. He served as lieutenant to Colonel Balderich von Adler, commander of

4526-484: A ruthless killer. He has since joined up with Junkrat as his bodyguard, in exchange for half of whatever treasure the ex-Junker knows the location of. After the two were exiled from Junkertown by the Junker Queen for causing a string of problems for her, Roadhog and Junkrat decide to get back at her. They embarked on an international crime spree and became wanted criminals in many countries. Once their worldwide heist

Overwatch - Misplaced Pages Continue

4672-526: A set of action figures featuring Overwatch characters. Since the franchise's beginning in 2016, the games have received six score album releases. The original Overwatch achieved widespread acclaim from both critics and players both prior to and upon release. Pre-release, media outlets "rushed to cover the [game's] beta", which attracted over 9.7 million players. The game's PC, PS4, and Xbox One versions all received "universal acclaim", according to review aggregator Metacritic ; these versions all hold

4818-503: A short-range Hand Cannon on his off-hand that fires shotgun-like bursts and regenerates ammo over time, but most of his abilities come through melee attacks from the Doomfist Gauntlet. Doomfist can charge up a Rocket Punch that lets him lunge forward and punch an opponent backwards, a Seismic Slam that launches enemies in its range a short distance towards Doomfist, and a since-removed Rising Uppercut that greatly launches

4964-478: A shorter cooldown period. Finally, a new second ability, Pig Pen , was added, allowing Roadhog to lay down a trap that can slow and damage enemies that cross it, including those pulled in by Roadhog's Chain Hook. Mako Rutledge lived in the Australian Outback in the period after the Omnic Crisis. The government of Australia, in an effort to make peace with the omnics, allowed them to take possession of

5110-461: A single enemy while doing damage. Each ability that successfully hits also generates personal shielding for Doomfist through his passive "The Best Defense..." . Doomfist's ultimate ability is named Meteor Strike , allowing him to jump into the air and slam the ground, damaging all enemies in a range around that point and pushing them back a short distance. Within Overwatch 2 , Doomfist's Uppercut

5256-841: A spectator mode. However, by 2023 the Overwatch League would collapse owing partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic (although some said that the pandemic would ultimately extend the OWL's shelf life) and a lack of interest from owners. The OWL would be replaced in 2024 by the Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS), a partnership between Activision-Blizzard, ESL and WDG Esports that moreso resembled traditional esports circuits. The OWCS will be made up of 3 regions, with North America and EMEA being each one big region with tournaments having Swiss-style Open Qualifying followed by

5402-611: A speech in London. Prior to the original game's announcement, Blizzard had been interested in making a team-based multiplayer shooter for a while. Overwatch has its development origins rooted in Titan , a Blizzard project that was cancelled in 2013. Elements of Titan were reworked into Overwatch , which was announced at BlizzCon in November 2014. Overwatch became Blizzard's first new series since they launched Diablo in 1996, as well as their first attempt at making an FPS game. After

5548-435: A talking gorilla. The need for a diverse cast was important to the developers, as some of Blizzard's previous games had been criticized before for missing this mark; Metzen explained that even his daughter had asked him why all the female characters from Warcraft seemed to be only wearing swimsuits. Metzen stated: "Specifically for Overwatch over the past year we've been really cognizant of that, trying not to oversexualize

5694-456: A tank class. Overwatch 2 also launched with three new heroes, bringing the total roster to 35 by October 2022. Initially, new heroes for Overwatch 2 were been introduced as a free unlock on a seasonal battle pass with a means to acquire them later through other challenges by players that did not purchase the battle pass, but since March 2024, Blizzard made new heroes available to all players without any purchase. Tank characters broadly have

5840-475: A terrorist threat seeking to set off another crisis. While in Italy on a covert operation to kidnap Talon's leader, Reyes ultimately kills him, exposing Blackwatch to the public. Public distrust in the organization begins to swell and the UN launches an investigation into Blackwatch following their fiasco in Italy. Already in a strained relationship, Morrison and Reyes find themselves at further odds with each other as

5986-513: A tie-in for an in-game event was also released. These origin story videos are designed to provide players with the background of new characters. Origin stories are animated in the style of motion comics and are shorter than Blizzard's 3D-animated short films. An animated series based on Overwatch was in development, but this fell through after Blizzard sued Netflix over the "poaching" of Blizzard's chief financial officer (CFO) Spencer Neumann. From 2016 to 2018, Blizzard published Overwatch ,

Overwatch - Misplaced Pages Continue

6132-519: A total prize pool of $ 300,000, with plans to broadcast the finals on Turner's cable channel TBS in September 2016. Overwatch achieved a high level of popularity as an esport in South Korea, with the first game surpassing League of Legends and topping gaming cafés in the country in terms of player count. The game also influenced the creation of an esports tournament in the region, under

6278-413: Is Annihilation , which converts Ramattra to his Nemesis form and send out a continuous beam of damaging nanobots. Ramattra is an R-7000 Ravager, a commando Omnic created by the "god program" Anubis during the Omnic Crisis; Ravagers became particularly hated by humans because of their actions during the war, and Ramattra is one of the few remaining. Seeking a purpose for himself beyond war, Ramattra joined

6424-614: Is Terra Surge that draws enemies towards her while making her immune to stun and crowd control effects. Additionally, her Fusion Driver fires large projectiles that shrink down as they travel. Orisa is voiced by Cherrelle Skeete. Ramattra is an Omnic warrior-monk and the leader of Null Sector, an extremist group that resorts to violent means to achieve Omnic rights. Ramattra spends most of his time in his normal Omnic Form , using his Void Accelerator staff to fire projectiles at enemies and protecting his teammates with his projected Void Barrier . He can fire small spheres that when contacting

6570-576: Is a South Korean mecha pilot and former pro gamer from Busan . She pilots a combat mecha armed with twin Fusion Cannons , shotgun-like weapons that require no ammunition or reload time. Her mecha is equipped with rocket Boosters for short bursts of flight, as well as a Defense Matrix that allows it to destroy enemy projectiles in the air. She can also fire a volley of Micro-Missiles that do splash damage on impact. D.Va's passive ability Eject! allows her to enter her pilot form when her mech

6716-549: Is able to render himself temporarily incorporeal as a result of a life-saving procedure conducted by O'Deorain. Now operating under the name Reaper , Reyes joins Talon. Six years after the Petras Act is signed, a second Omnic Crisis emerges in Russia. Staying at Watchpoint, a former Overwatch facility based in Gibraltar , Winston follows the developing situation. Reaper then breaks into Watchpoint and attacks Winston. While Winston

6862-536: Is able to thwart Reaper, the latter's attack is the catalyst for the former's issuing of a recall of former Overwatch agents. Oxton, known by the call sign Tracer , is the first to answer; she is later followed by Genji, Wilhelm, Lindholm, Cassidy, and Ziegler, known by the call sign Mercy . After the recall, Reaper and Talon sniper Amélie Lacroix (known as Widowmaker ) attempt to steal a gauntlet for their leader Akande Ogundimu . They are stopped by Winston and Tracer. Widowmaker later assassinates Mondatta as he gives

7008-487: Is destroyed. This form is much weaker and has no abilities. In this form she can fire her Light Gun to build her Ultimate and call another mech down. D.Va has two Ultimate abilities. Self-Destruct can be used in her mech form and allows her to self-detonate her mech, dealing massive damage to any enemies within range. Call Mech can be used in her pilot form and allows her to call in another mech, dealing damage where her mech lands and returning her to her mech form. D.Va

7154-480: Is featured prominently in Good Smile Company 's merchandise, with the company distributing both Nendoroid and Figma figurines of the character. Good Smile has also featured other Overwatch characters in their lines. Lego has also produced an Overwatch set of figurines . As part of their Rivals line, Nerf has designed Overwatch -stylized toy guns. Nerf's parent company, Hasbro , later launched

7300-454: Is just one part of what makes our heroes who they are." Since then, Tracer has been shown to be in a romantic relationship with another woman through one of the tie-in comics published online by Blizzard. In a subset lore story, Soldier: 76 was also identified as gay, having had a romantic relationship with a man prior to joining Overwatch. A research paper analyzed this announcement and found that players avoided Soldier: 76 afterwards. However,

7446-450: Is officially announced; for example, the 26th hero Moira had appeared in at least two works prior to her announcement. Once a character is announced, they are typically made available on the "Public Test Region" (PTR) for Windows players to try out and help provide feedback to Blizzard. Once Blizzard is satisfied with the PTR character, typically a period lasting two to three weeks, the character

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7592-427: Is replaced with a Power Block that absorbs frontal damage for a short time, empowering his next Rocket Punch upon absorbing enough damage. Doomfist is a generational character, the name and titular weapon passed between three people in the game's fiction. The current holder, Akande Ogundimu, was the heir to a cybernetics and prosthetics company with a love of competitive fighting. Having lost his right arm during

7738-658: Is set sixty years into the future of a fictionalized Earth, as well as thirty years after the "Omnic Crisis" is resolved and six years after the Petras Act is signed. Omnics are artificial intelligence (AI) robots that were created to assist humans in manufacturing and global economic equality efforts. During this period, humanity prospered as omnics helped stabilize society. The Omnic Crisis involved "omniums" (large facilities that churned out omnics) beginning to produce hostile omnics, many of which were bastion units. These hostile omnics began attacking humans, beginning their assault in Russia. Individual nations initially responded to

7884-484: Is the Japanese term for a transmedia franchise. The term media mix gained its circulation in late 1980s and is first used to describe adaptations of Sakyo Komatsu 's Japan Sinks , but the origins of the strategy can be traced back to the 1960s with the proliferation of anime , with its interconnection of media and commodity goods. Some of the earlier popular Japanese franchises such as Vampire Hunter D in

8030-517: Is then released to all players on all regions and platforms, outside of competitive play, as to give players a chance to learn the character. Roughly a week following this, the new character then becomes available for competitive play mode. Character powers are frequently tweaked and adjusted with patches, mostly incremental changes. A few characters have had major overhauls, notably Symmetra (with two separate overhauls of her skill), Mercy, and Torbjörn. Like new characters, these overhauls are tested in

8176-475: Is voiced by Charlet Chung . Doomfist is both the name of the titular cybernetic gauntlet and the title of its wielder, currently the Nigerian -born Akande Ogundimu, a businessman and mixed martial artist-turned mercenary. As originally released in Overwatch , Doomfist was classified as a Damage hero, but was reworked to become a Tank role in Overwatch 2 , giving him more health and damage resistance. He has

8322-405: The 2022 Overwatch League playoffs . Prior to his announcement, Ramattra also first appeared in the story-based game mode "Storm Rising", where he is offered an alliance with Talon by Doomfist. He was released in Overwatch 2 on December 6, 2022, along with the second season of the game. Ramattra is voiced by Ramon Tikaram . Reinhardt Wilhelm is a German soldier and adventurer, and one of

8468-421: The Overwatch community would develop around esports over time as they did with Hearthstone . This included the introduction of the game's competitive mode some months after the game's launch after seeing how players took towards Overwatch ; Blizzard saw the ladder-approach they used as a means for skilled players to reach high ranks as to be noticed by esport team organizers. ESPN and Gamasutra wrote that

8614-574: The crossover multiplayer online battle arena game, Heroes of the Storm . Overwatch , now completely replaced by Overwatch 2 , was an online team-oriented first-person shooter , and an example of a " hero shooter " where players select from one of several pre-designed hero characters with their own unique abilities. Overwatch included casual play modes, competitive ranked play modes, and various arcade modes where special rules applied. Most game modes brought together two teams of six players each into

8760-491: The fantasy and science fiction genres. Similarly, fantasy, science fiction films and television shows are frequently adapted into animated television series , video games, or both. A media franchise does not have to include the same characters or theme, as the brand identity can be the franchise, like Square Enix 's Final Fantasy or the National Lampoon series , and can suffer from critical failures even if

8906-505: The reins to a young Reinhardt Willhelm following a battle in Eichenwalde . Removed from the crisis, scientists on the moon-based Horizon Lunar Colony create genetically modified animals to test long-term habitation in space. Among these animals is an ape named Winston . Other apes on the colony start a revolt, killing all scientists in the process. However, Winston creates a rocket and escapes to Earth. While Russia opted to handle

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9052-513: The "Omnic Crisis". After winning its battle, the Overwatch kept the peace for about three decades before infighting led to its disbandment. The game takes place approximately sixty years in the future, during a time period in which the world is slipping into disarray, and former Overwatch members along with new allies, as well as enemies, are being called on to help protect the peace in their respective favors. Among Overwatch's enemies include Talon,

9198-423: The 1980s and Pokémon in the late 1990s, acted as benchmarks in the country's transmedia dominance. The latter in particular began as a video game available on Nintendo 's Game Boy , and crossed through the media of television, film, news, and other non-media related realms, such trading cards, merchandise, and more. A number of Japanese media franchises have gained considerable global popularity, and are among

9344-475: The 2023 Blizzcon event, is the 42nd hero to be added to the game, and will be made available to test publicly for all players in November 2024, before being added to the roster with the start of Season 14 in December 2024. Hazard is voiced by Conor McLeod. Junker Queen, real name Odessa "Dez" Stone, is the new ruler of Junkertown, a ramshackle city in the Australian Outback . She also oversees

9490-465: The Crusaders, which served alongside the regular army to act as their shield. Reckless in his younger years, Reinhardt often left his comrades behind to find glory in battle. That would change during the battle of Eichenwalde, where he lost his left eye to the blade of an OR14 assault omnic: Retreating into Eichenwalde Castle, Balderich gave Reinhardt his Overwatch initiation medal and sent him to rejoin

9636-515: The Omnic Crisis, he was barred from competing even though he got a replacement prosthesis. Looking for something to fill the void, he was approached by the previous holder of the Doomfist, Akinjide Adeyemi, to join the Talon terrorist group. Ogundimu agreed and thrived within its ranks, though he eventually grew dissatisfied with Adeyemi's lesser ambitions and killed him to take his weapon, mantle, and control of Talon, wishing to push his worldview onto

9782-486: The PTR before released to all public regions. A major notable change, reducing the number of roles from four to three (combining "offense" and "defense" heroes into the "damage" category) was implemented in the PTR before being released for all players in June 2018. Overwatch 2 was announced in November 2019, with plans for both a normal PvP element as with the original game and a Player versus Environment (PVE) mode. With

9928-547: The Phreaks, who dealt with illegal body modifications. The Phreaks helped to outfit him with new powerful augmentations, and he joined their goal to break down the "system" of the elites in the world. During a raid on Moira's laboratory at Oasis University, Hazard absorbed an unstable form of vanadium ferrofluid under study there (the map having reflected this change in Season 13). The element gave Hazard superhuman powers including

10074-456: The PvE mode to come later in 2023. While at announcement there was some intent to have a shared multiplayer experience between Overwatch and Overwatch 2 , Overwatch 2 was instead released as a free to play title, with a player's earned cosmetics brought over into Overwatch 2 . Overwatch 2 was designed to play faster and avoid the slow pace that some Overwatch games had become, in part due to

10220-564: The Shambali, an order of Omnic monks in the Himalayas, under the tutelage of Tekhartha Mondatta. It was during this time that he first met Zenyatta and introduced him to the teachings of the Shambali, considering him a brother. However, Ramattra broke with the Shambali because of humans' continued oppression against Omnics and Mondatta's insistence on peace with humans, and left on a crusade to liberate Omnics from human control. He became one of

10366-652: The Supercharger itself could be destroyed by enemy fire and deactivated after a few seconds. Orisa's skill-set was rebuilt significantly for Overwatch 2 , meant to speed up play and reduce dependence on shields. Her Barrier, Halt, and Supercharger abilities have been removed, and instead she gained an Energy Javelin that can be used to launch enemies away, potentially damaging them if they hit walls. Orisa can also use her Javelin Spin to surge forward, directly attacking enemies and destroying projectiles. Her ultimate ability

10512-585: The ability to form and launch spikes at enemies. According to Blizzard's lead gameplay designer Alec Dawson, their goal with Hazard was to create a versatile tank hero that could play well both offensively and defensively, with high mobility using the Vault and Violent Leap abilities. Hazard was originally named "Spiker" in early development, intended to be a major villian character, but over time, they refined his personality to have more "rebellious charm" while still retaining his powerful form. Hazard, first teased at

10658-446: The absence of a dedicated story mode, Blizzard tells the backstory of Overwatch 's plot and characters through media outside the game, including animated shorts, character press events, tweets, and webcomics. The game's story centers around a technological singularity in which humanity assembles a team of its best heroes, Overwatch, to fight off a rogue artificial intelligence and its robotic army of Omnics in an incident called

10804-530: The available hero characters. The game's characters are divided into three role classifications: damage, tank, and support. Damage characters are often doing the most damage and help the team with the majority of kills. Tank characters can absorb large amounts of damage for the team, and support characters can heal their teammates and provide status effects for the team or against enemies. The game will warn teams if they have an imbalance in their general role selection, and many game modes require players to select

10950-559: The brand name " APEX ", which operated until January 2018. Blizzard announced its own official Overwatch World Cup (OWWC) tournament in August 2016. The first annual OWWC would be played later that November at BlizzCon 2016, where Blizzard also announced the formation of their Overwatch League (OWL). The OWL borrowed various elements from traditional sports leagues like the National Football League (NFL), including

11096-462: The characters had tweaks or major rebuilds within Overwatch 2 , as well as different character designs. The story of Overwatch takes place on Earth in the "near future" in the years after the "Omnic Crisis," a period in which robots (called "omnics") rose up in rebellion worldwide, and the United Nations formed an elite group called Overwatch to combat them. Overwatch continued to protect

11242-557: The city's combat arena, the Scrapyard. Junker Queen's primary weapon is a hit scan shotgun. Passively, most of her attacks deal wound damage that drains enemy health over a short time while healing her. Her Commanding Shout buffs nearby allies with speed and regeneration for a short time. Her Jagged Blade ability lashes a throwing knife at a foe and can be recalled by her magnetic fist that can cause bleeding damage to an opponent. She can use her Carnage ability to strike with her ax in

11388-482: The community thought Overwatch 's meta was broken, then it actually was and vice versa. The original Overwatch game was released by Blizzard on May 24, 2016, for PC platforms, as well as eighth generation console platforms PlayStation 4 and Xbox One . A version of the game developed by Iron Galaxy for the Nintendo Switch was later released on October 15, 2019. Blizzard shut down servers for

11534-572: The corporation began to abuse Rio's population. A group of omnics called the Shambali also emerged. Led by Tekhartha Mondatta , they believe that omnics possess a soul and aim to revitalize human–omnic relations. A growing rift between Morrison and Reyes arose after the former was promoted to Strike Commander. After Reyes lost command of Overwatch, he took control of Blackwatch, a covert operations unit. American bounty hunter Cole Cassidy , Irish geneticist Moira O'Deorain , and Japanese cyborg ninja Genji Shimada joined as members of Blackwatch. The latter

11680-473: The crisis with their own programs. The United States launched the secret Soldier Enhancement Program, modifying soldiers into mercenaries. Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes were among the most notable test subjects of the program. Meanwhile, Germany responded to the crisis through the Crusaders, an elite force of soldiers heavily suited in armor inspired by knights and wielding weapons such as hammers. The Crusaders were led by Balderich von Adler, until he handed

11826-606: The day-in-the-life episodes of the many different Real Housewives series. Documentaries and docuseries are other highlights of the non-fiction branch of media franchises, such as the popular Planet Earth series, which serves as both a film and television transmedia franchise. Characters of Overwatch#Tekhartha Mondatta The Overwatch franchise, a series of first-person shooter games developed by Blizzard Entertainment , consists of 41 playable characters across both games. The original 2016 game, Overwatch , featured 32 playable characters known as heroes and

11972-423: The early access period for Overwatch 2 , Blizzard Yōkai , which explored story elements regarding Kiriko . They later released Ramattra: Reflections and As You Are . The latter was released leading into the game's 2023 Pride event and established Pharah and Baptiste as LGBTQ+ characters. On June 2, 2020, The Hero of Numbani , a young-adult novel by Nicky Drayden was published. The story, functioning as

12118-515: The female characters." Kaplan explained that the industry was "clearly in an age where gaming is for everybody", going on to say that "increasingly, people want to feel represented, from all walks of life, boys and girls, everybody. We feel indebted to do our best to honor that." In addition, Blizzard stated at the 2016 Blizzcon that some of the characters are LGBT , though did not specify which ones at that time. Blizzard has stated that "As with any aspect of our characters' backgrounds, their sexuality

12264-725: The fictional worlds they love, adds to the overall narrative the franchise creates through its other media. Marvel's Avenger's Campus park is one of the many franchise-based theme parks created in recent times, following the creation of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure and Star Wars' Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland and Disney World . Media franchises tend to cross over from their original media to other forms. Literary franchises are often transported to film, such as Nancy Drew , Miss Marple , and other popular detectives , as well as popular comic book superheroes . Television and film franchises are often expanded upon in novels , particularly those in

12410-470: The film The Matrix Reloaded and the video game Enter the Matrix were produced at the same time, using the same actors on the same sets, and released on the same day. Transmedia franchises occasionally release content through certain media that is not canon to the main or greater story that the franchise is built around, meaning that the elements of said content do not truly exist in the main timeline of

12556-467: The financial logic of cost-recovery for expensive productions by identifying that a single medium launch is a lost opportunity, the timeliness of the production and release is more important than its integrity, the releases should raise brand awareness and the cross-ability of the work is critical for its success. American Idol was a transmedia franchise from its beginnings, with the first season winner Kelly Clarkson signing with RCA Records and having

12702-590: The first international Overwatch competition in August 2016, dubbed the Overwatch Atlantic Showdown. The competition used four open qualifiers beginning in June, followed by regional qualifiers and then a final online qualifier. Eight teams then competed for a six-figure prize in the finals to be held at Gamescom 2016 from August 20 to 21. Turner Broadcasting 's ELeague announced the first Overwatch Open tournament, starting in July 2016, with

12848-519: The first of these shorts, was released on March 21, 2016. It was centered around Reaper's attack on Winston at Gibraltar and Winston's following recall of former Overwatch agents. Blizzard released nine more shorts through 2018; Reunion was the last of these shorts until The Wastelander was released in 2022. Aside from short films, Blizzard also released "origin story" videos for Soldier: 76 and each character added to Overwatch 's playable roster post-launch. An origin story for King's Row Uprising,

12994-441: The first video game in the series lacked a traditional story mode. Instead, Blizzard employed a transmedia storytelling strategy to disseminate lore regarding the game's characters, releasing comics and other literary media, as well as animated media that includes short films. The game enjoyed both critical and commercial success, and garnered a devoted following. Blizzard helped launch and promote an esports scene surrounding

13140-645: The first volume of their Overwatch comic series anthology, Dark Horse released The Art of Overwatch on October 24, 2017. The 100-page book showcased concept art and illustrations from Overwatch 's development team, accompanied by their commentary. In 2019, Blizzard released Bastet , What You Left Behind , and Valkyrie , three short stories which centered on Soldier: 76, Baptiste , and Mercy, respectively. Further short stories, Stone by Stone and Code of Violence , centering on Symmetra and Reaper, respectively, have also been released. Also in 2019, Blizzard released an official Overwatch cookbook. Shortly before

13286-492: The five issues and featuring cover art by artist Bengal was physically released on September 28, 2021. Another five-issue limited series, New Blood was released from November 2021 to March 2022. Similar in style to London Calling , the series followed Cassidy post- Zero Hour on his journey to recruit members to the newly revived Overwatch. Both London Calling and New Blood also served as tie-ins for in-game seasonal events . A graphic novel titled Overwatch: First Strike

13432-607: The focus on the content of the commodity to "overlapping the commodity image with the character image". The book Anime's Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan, by Marc Steinberg, details the evolution of the media mix in Japan. Long-running franchises were common in the early studio era, when Hollywood studios had actors and directors under long-term contract. In such cases, even lead actors are often replaced as they age, lose interest, or their characters are killed. Spin-offs and adaptations of popular pieces of media within

13578-531: The founders of Null Sector, and planned out the King's Row uprising, which was defeated by Overwatch (played out in Uprising , one of Overwatch ' s Archive events). The failure of the uprising led Ramattra to more extreme measures; after the surviving leaders abandoned him, he began to forge Null Sector into an army to liberate all Omnics, whether they wished to be freed or not. He was briefly introduced during

13724-406: The founding members of Overwatch. He wears a heavy suit of Crusader power armor, and carries a rocket-powered war hammer ( Rocket Hammer ) as his primary weapon. His main ability is a wide hard-light Barrier Field mounted on his arm that allows him to protect himself and teammates behind him from enemy fire. He may also launch a flaming projectile that ignores enemy barriers ( Fire Strike ), or use

13870-433: The franchise's characters and settings. As one author explains, "For the studios, a home-run is a film from which a multimedia 'franchise' can be generated; the colossally expensive creation of cross-media conglomerates predicated on synergistic rewards provides an obvious imperative to develop such products." The trend later developed wherein franchises would be launched in multiple forms of media simultaneously; for instance,

14016-415: The franchise. Canon content often times breaks continuity, leading fans to speculate or seek to confirm which media are canon and which are not, which can get confusing if the franchise does not provide an answer themselves since entire media can be non-canon to the greater story, with a popular example occurring. On the other hand, specific episodes, volumes or parts of a series can be canon while others in

14162-405: The game had a favorable foundation to succeed as an esports title, citing the game's sufficient difference from established esports games, its variety in maps and characters, and strong support from its developer, as well as its speed and short match times. The first organized, prize-winning competitions for Overwatch started in mid-2016, a few months after launch. The esports organizer ESL held

14308-480: The game on October 3, 2022. Blizzard released Overwatch 2 via early access on October 4, 2022. The game was made free-to-play on PC and for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X platforms, and employed full cross-platform play. As of August 20th 2024, the roster of selectable heroes in Overwatch has grown to 41 with the inclusion of Juno. Until the warm reception of Overwatch 's beta, Blizzard

14454-449: The game was everywhere .  –Cass Marshall, Polygon (2022) Prior to Overwatch 2 's release, fans raised concerns over the sequel's transition toward a 5v5 dynamic. Also predating its release, the sequel attracted both critic and player concerns about whether it would feel like a true sequel with considerable differences from its predecessor. Visuals from the sequel's technical beta were criticized for being too similar to

14600-564: The game's announcement, Polygon wrote that it "appears to feature Blizzard's signature chunky, slightly cartoonish style." A beta for the game was launched in 2015. Jeff Kaplan , Michael Chu, and Scott Mercer served as the game's lead director, lead writer, and principal game designer, respectively. Blizzard hired writer Alyssa Wong to Overwatch 's writing team in 2018. Kaplan departed from Blizzard in April 2021, after which Aaron Keller took over Kaplan's duties as lead director. After

14746-423: The game, but did develop some of the characters, like Soldier: 76, to have an unsure purpose within the narrative. Several characters were envisioned for the game during its pre-planning stages, but did not make the cut, or were later incorporated into other heroes. Among characters that were considered included a jetpack-wearing cat, a hockey player that used rocket-power skates, and a Russian woman that would ride

14892-499: The game, including an annual Overwatch World Cup , as well as the Overwatch League and a minor league , which borrowed elements found in traditional American sports leagues. Overwatch is also known for its community, which has produced a large amount of content including art, cosplay, fan fiction, anime-influenced music videos, Internet memes, and pornography featuring Overwatch characters and elements. Overwatch

15038-410: The game, such as new maps and characters. Blizzard also introduced limited-time seasonal events, offering new cosmetic items in loot boxes, themed maps, and gameplay modes. In Overwatch 2 , the loot box system was entirely scrapped in favor of a battle pass system. After playing a game, the player would earn points that contributed to their progression in the battle pass, unlocking new cosmetics along

15184-446: The globe. Though he was later caught by Overwatch and placed in prison, Talon broke him out, and Ogundimu seized his Doomfist gauntlet to reclaim the Doomfist name and retake his position within Talon. The concept of the Doomfist has existed since the first cinematic trailer for Overwatch , with the heroes fighting for control of the gauntlet, and since has been teased as a potential playable character in other game updates. Doomfist

15330-449: The ground, create a Ravenous Vortex that draws enemies briefly into it and slows their movement. His Nemesis Form changes his attacks to Pummel , an onslaught of melee punches, as well as a secondary skill, Block , that reduces incoming damage while greatly reducing Ramattra's movement speed and leaving him unable to attack. The Nemesis form only lasts for eight seconds before Ramattra reverts to his normal Omnic form. Ramattra's ultimate

15476-518: The inclusivity and positivity of its player base. While this broad accessibility was a common account by reviewers upon release, outlets later noted that players grew more toxic, particularly on the game's competitive mode. Kaplan concurred with this assessment and led the developers' efforts to curb this toxicity. The game also experienced considerable commercial success, becoming the 7th-best selling video game of all-time. Although never officially disclosing an exact number of sold copies, Blizzard counted

15622-463: The introduction of Echo, the 32nd hero to Overwatch , in March 2020, Kaplan stated that the team's focus was now on Overwatch 2 and it was unlikely they would release any additional heroes prior to the game's release. After some delays, including the departure of Kaplan and lead character designer Geoff Goodman, Overwatch 2 was released in open early access with its PvP mode in October 2022, with

15768-473: The magazine), footwear, clothing of every kind, jewelry, housewares (lamps, clocks, bedding, glassware), guitars and gambling, playing cards, pinball machines and pet accessories, billiard balls, bedroom appurtenances, enhancements, plus countless other items of merchandise. Non-fiction media franchises also exist in the television and film media, with reality TV being one of the most well-known examples; ranging from competition shows like The Amazing Race to

15914-400: The media fictional material is unrelated. Non-fiction literary franchises include the ...For Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to... reference books . An enduring and comprehensive example of a media franchise is Playboy Enterprises , which began expanding well beyond its successful magazine, Playboy , within a few years after its first publication, into such enterprises as

16060-451: The next year's convention. The game is character-driven, and reviewers noted Overwatch 's emphasis on the individual differences between characters in the same role (e.g., between two snipers) as a departure from dominant class-based shooter paradigms. Critics widely praised the game's accessible and detailed character design and its role in the game's overall success. Similar to Valve's initial launch of Team Fortress 2 , in

16206-672: The omnium and the territory around it, displacing the human residents. Mako and other angry humans formed the Australian Liberation Front to strike against the omnium and the omnics that resided around it. In the end, the ALF overloaded the fusion core, destroying the omnium and turning the Outback into a radioactive wasteland, severely disfiguring Mako's face. Mako donned a mask and took to the broken highways on his chopper, forsaking his humanity little by little until he became

16352-428: The original Overwatch , winning matches earned the player experience towards levels in the meta-game. The player earned a loot box on reaching a new experience level, which contained a random assortment of character skins, emotes, voice lines, and other cosmetic items for each character without altering gameplay. Players could also purchase loot boxes with real-world money. Blizzard provided free post-release content for

16498-534: The original game's. A perceived lack of attention toward support players was also noted during the game's beta. In response, Blizzard made efforts to make the support role more enticing to play. Shortly following the sequel's beta period and just weeks prior to the game launching into early access , Kiriko was introduced to the game's playable roster as the first support hero announced in over three years. Multimedia franchise A media franchise often consists of cross-marketing across more than one medium. For

16644-402: The other, Cha-Cha can fire damaging volatile rounds to do critical hit damage on ignited enemies. His passive Berserker ability provides him healing when he causes critical hits. He can race through to the front line of combat with his Overrun ability, or provide an aura that protects and heals nearby allies through his Cardiac Overdrive ability. His Ultimate ability is Cage Fight , creating

16790-420: The others, admonishing him to "be their shield". Becoming the only Crusader to survive the battle, Reinhardt remained in Overwatch service well into his fifties, his code of ethics and his blunt honesty making him a respected member of the team, until he was forced to retire due to his age and left to watch as Overwatch collapsed. When Winston issued the call to arms to his Overwatch comrades, Reinhardt - living in

16936-433: The overarching story and narrative of the franchise itself. A connection between the characters, settings, and other elements of the media franchise do still exist within the different media, regardless of the fact that they are being presented in sometimes completely different ways, such as the shared, interweaving storylines and elements of Spider-Man films, television shows, comics and video games. Espen Aarseth describes

17082-490: The owners, the goal of increasing profit through diversity can extend the commercial profitability of the franchise and create strong feelings of identity and ownership in its consumers. Those large groups of dedicated consumers create the franchise's fandom , which is the community of fans that indulge in many of its media and are committed to interacting with and keeping up with other consumers. Large franchise-based fandoms have grown to be even more popular in recent years with

17228-481: The peace until it was disbanded years later under a cloud of suspicion, but its former members have returned to the force in light of new threats to humanity. Blizzard wanted to create a diverse set of characters to reflect a positive outlook on this near future, incorporating non-human characters and non-standard character traits. The game launched with 21 characters, with 20 more added post-release across both games. Nine characters reprised their role as playable heroes in

17374-399: The personality that they had established for Mauga in the media. Kaplan stated they still plan to introduce Mauga as a hero character in the future. Instead, they designed a new character, Sigma, to use that developed kit as the 31st hero. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the release of the character, and further delayed when his planned introduction in Season 2 of Overwatch 2 , in December 2022,

17520-516: The pick rate returned to previous levels after around three months. The team envisioned the characters akin to superheroes in this narrative, each with their own abilities, background and personality that could stand on their own, but could also fit into the larger story; this notion translated into the characters being agents for the game, which Metzen said still captures the "heroism and vibe" that superhero stories carry. The team did not want to have any characters that served solely as villains in

17666-529: The point of detonation, similar to Zarya's Graviton Surge. She could launch a deployable Protective Barrier similar to Reinhardt's shield which could be used for strategic defenses, and could Fortify herself to temporarily prevent all forms of crowd control against her, such as Lúcio's sonic blasts or Reinhardt's Earthshatter abilities. Her ultimate ability was Supercharger , a deployable device which gave Orisa and her teammates, provided they were in line-of-sight, an attack boost similar to that of Mercy , though

17812-484: The popular Twilight book series that was adapted into the five films of The Twilight Saga . Other neologisms exist to describe various franchise types including metaseries , which can be used to describe works such as Isaac Asimov 's Foundation series . Multimedia franchises usually develop through a character or fictional world becoming popular in one medium, and then expanding to others through licensing agreements , with respect to intellectual property in

17958-415: The release of A Moment Like This becoming a #1 hit on Billboard Hot 100. The success resulted in a nationwide concert tour, an American Idol book that made the bestseller list and the film From Justin to Kelly . A transmedia franchise however is often referred to by the simpler term "media franchise". The term media franchise is often used to describe the popular adaptation of a work into films, like

18104-599: The release of Overwatch , Blizzard's developers continued to add to the game through free updates, introducing new characters, maps, game modes, and cosmetic items, often as part of seasonal events . The different gameplays of individual heroes were also tuned and patched in response to player feedback and statistics regarding the meta found within the game. As Kaplan followed a philosophy that emphasized players' perception of game balance, he affirmed that meta shifts to Overwatch were beholden to its players and not its developers; Heroes Never Die wrote on Kaplan's belief that if

18250-409: The rise of social media platforms, as many fans seek to interact with one another for discussion, debate and even to create their own fan-made pieces of media revolving around the franchise, on websites like tumblr , Reddit and Fandom . In the case of successful transmedia franchises, each different medium should expand the target demographic and fandom, build the interest of the consumers and add to

18396-656: The ruins of Eichenwalde - answered without hesitation, despite the belief of his friend Brigitte that Overwatch had tossed him aside due to his age. Reinhardt had started as one of the characters in the cancelled Titan game, as the "Juggernaut" character. When Titan was cancelled and the Blizzard team were looking for assets, they redesigned the Juggernaut into the Reinhardt character. Between Titan and Overwatch , Reinhardt had gone through eight major redesigns, with

18542-525: The same medium are not, such as the fact that only some of the Battlestar Galactica comics are canon, with a large amount of them breaking the continuity of the main story. In Japanese culture and entertainment, media mix ( wasei-eigo : メディアミックス , mediamikkusu ) is a strategy to disperse content across multiple representations: different broadcast media , gaming technologies, cell phones, toys, amusement parks , and other methods. It

18688-451: The series' 12 issues released to that point. An expanded edition of the anthology was released in December 2021. From 2020 to 2021, Blizzard and Dark Horse published Tracer - London Calling a five-issue limited series . Written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Babs Tarr , print versions of each issue were also released. Rachael Cohen and Deron Bennett served as the series' colorist and letterer, respectively. A graphic novel collecting

18834-420: The skill's cooldown period. Each character also has at least one powerful ultimate ability that becomes available once its meter is charged, either slowly over time or through other actions such as killing opponents or healing teammates. Once the ultimate ability is used, the player has to wait for the meter to fill again. All characters have a close-combat, low damage melee attack that can be used at any time. In

18980-502: The streets of London. Composed of these omnics facing persecution following the Omnic Crisis' conclusion, Null Sector launches a surprise attack on King's Row . Dismissing orders from the British Prime Minister, Morrison deploys Overwatch agents Wilhelm, Lindholm, Ziegler, and the newly-recruited Lena Oxton on an ultimately successful mission to stop Null Sector's forces. Blackwatch is enlisted to fight against Talon,

19126-517: The time of release. Mauga is voiced by John Tui . Orisa is a four-legged centaur-like female Omnic built by 11-year-old robotics prodigy Efi Oladele, to be a "mechanical peacekeeper" of Numbani. Within her Overwatch skill kit, her primary weapon was the Fusion Driver , a long-range projectile-based machine gun; its alternate fire mode, Halt! , released a slow-moving projectile that the player could detonate to draw in nearby enemies towards

19272-556: The time the game transitioned to a maintenance mode in July 2022, a total of nine characters became playable in Heroes of the Storm , while battlegrounds based on the Overwatch maps Hanamura and Volskaya Industries were also included. A number of Overwatch -themed skins have been introduced for Heroes of the Storm 's " Overwatch cosplay" event in May 2021. While not originally developed with esport support in mind, Overwatch would see

19418-415: The use of "crowd control" (CC) abilities to hamper progress. To correct this, Overwatch 2 is nominally played with five players on each team, with role-fixed games using two damage, two support, and one tank. This necessitated changes to several characters' skill kits to match; notably, Orisa's kit has a significant rework to remove her shield and her CC abilities, while Doomfist was reworked from damage into

19564-512: The version of Reinhardt in Overwatch having an "08" on one of his shoulder pieces to reflect these revisions. In the redesign for Overwatch 2 , Reinhardt had gone through another small revision, and now has "09" on his shoulder piece. Reinhardt was the most popular tank character during the game's open beta. Reinhardt is voiced by Darin De Paul . Roadhog, real name Mako Rutledge, is Junkrat's Australian enforcer and bodyguard . He wields

19710-475: The waves of omnics on their own, nations failed to quell the crisis individually. As a result, the United Nations (UN) assembled Overwatch, a strike team led by Reyes and Morrison. Reyes served as Overwatch's Strike Commander, leading the task force that included Morrison, Wilhelm, Egyptian sniper Ana Amari , Swedish weapons engineer Torbjörn Lindholm , and Singaporean AI scientist Dr. Mina Liao . Within

19856-496: The way. The battle pass system also contains the newest hero (a new hero is released every second season) at the 45th level of the battle pass. At the highest level of the battle pass, a mythic is unlocked, which is the highest ranking for the quality of a skin. Overwatch 2 has now also featured a shop where specific customizations are periodically rotated. Overwatch originally featured 12 characters at its November 2014 BlizzCon convention announcement, but expanded to 21 by

20002-477: The world's highest-grossing media franchises . For example, Pokémon 's penetration into the American market of the franchise along with others of Japanese origin, such as Yu-Gi-Oh! , gave rise to the recognition of what is variously called transmedia storytelling , crossmedia, transmediation , media synergy, etc. Researchers argue that the 1963 Tetsuwan Atomu marked a shift in Japanese marketing from

20148-453: The years that followed, the two still met once in a while on questionable terms but treating each other as old friends. Mauga was in development for the game as early as 2018. Blizzard brought in a Samoan tattoo artist to help create Mauga's tattoos at a level of detail that was appropriate for the game engine. Mauga was intended to be Hero 31, but according to Kaplan, as they developed the skill kit for this character, they found it didn't fit

20294-459: Was bombastic and beautiful, and it kicked off a fervent fandom. Players loved the bright designs, strong characterization, and optimism inherent to the setting. The game's launch and follow-up cinematics only solidified this fan base; people loved to ship characters, imagine their missions, and daydream about future lore. Overwatch was so widespread and iconic it even revolutionized the Rule 34 scene;

20440-590: Was developed by Blizzard following the cancellation of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game Titan , a project that had been in works for several years. A smaller team from those on Titan were given the role to come up with a new project, and they came onto the idea of a first-person shooter that emphasized teamwork, inspired by Team Fortress 2 and the rising popularity of multiplayer online battle arenas , as well as their own development team unity they found to keep their morale high following Titan ' s cancellation. The development team settled on

20586-543: Was developed to lack a traditional story or campaign mode and instead Blizzard conveyed narrative elements through a transmedia storytelling method. While voice lines and map elements in Overwatch reveal some of its universe's lore, the bulk of the story surrounding its characters is told through animated short films and literary media. Character biographies and fake news reports containing story pieces have also been published on Blizzard's website. Chu remarked that Blizzard's method of storytelling with Overwatch demonstrated

20732-450: Was formally introduced as the 25th hero to Overwatch and was made available to play on all platforms on July 27, 2017. Doomfist is voiced by Sahr Ngaujah . Hazard, real name Findlay Docherty, is a Scottish member of the Phreaks, a punk-like revolutionary group, and outfitted with several illicit cybernetic attachments. His primary attack is Bonespur , his arm augment that fires a shotgun-like spread of crystal spikes. He can perform

20878-524: Was part of the eponymous Shimada Clan crime family alongside his brother, Hanzo . After a falling out, the family ordered Hanzo to kill Genji. On the brink of death, Genji was rehabilitated into a cyborg by Overwatch medical director Angela Ziegler . A terrorist organization, Null Sector, meanwhile emerges in London. Lacking rights in England, omnics are forced to live in the Underworld, a city beneath

21024-402: Was replaced with the more-complete Ramattra as to give more time to finish Mauga's development. Mauga was introduced during the November 2023 BlizzCon and was available for free play that weekend prior to being available as part of the Season 8 season pass in December 2023. The trial during BlizzCon was intended to test Mauga's survivability in a more raw environment, allowing for adjustments by

21170-402: Was teased by Blizzard in 2016, but it was ultimately scrapped. Posting on Overwatch 's official forums, Chu stated that Blizzard decided to cancel First Strike due to considerable changes made to the narrative and characters of Overwatch since First Strike was first conceived. The novel was to be penned by writer Micky Neilson and artist Ludo Lullabi. Shortly before the publishing of

21316-530: Was unsure of representing Overwatch characters in Heroes of the Storm , their crossover multiplayer battle online arena (MOBA) video game. Around a month prior to the release of Overwatch , Blizzard added Tracer to the MOBA; PC Gamer called Tracer's addition to the game "a marketing move [for Overwatch ], for sure." Afterwards, other characters and map elements from Overwatch were incorporated into Heroes . By

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